Aptamers and bio-sensing

7^th Euro Biosensors and Bioelectronics Conference

July 10-11, 2017 Berlin, Germany

Shalen Kumar

AuramerBio Limited, New Zealand
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Biosens Bioelectron

Abstract :

Synthetically derived single-stranded nucleic acid species, also known as aptamers, have been generated under in vitro conditions using a sequential enrichment and mutational approach referred to as systemic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). Aptamers generated in this way have been shown to bind a variety of targets such as organic and in-organic molecules in addition to larger molecules such as proteins. Aptamers are now being used in a variety of medical and bio-sensing applications. However, despite significant advances in the bio-sensing platforms, the generation of highly sensitive and specific aptamers capable of binding small molecular weight compounds is still limited. Aptamers to small molecular targets were selected from a random library of nucleotide sequences using SELEX. The resulting aptamers are sequenced and binding affinities are characterized (binding affinity constants Kd) prior to application on sensing platforms. In addition, structural differences between an aptamer and its ligand give rise to the formation of a unique complex where a specific region of the aptamer is involved in binding to the ligand (known as the ligand binding domain, LBD). Utilization of the parent aptamer (e.g., 75mer) or the LBD-aptamer region (e.g., 38mer) influence the limit of detection (LOD) achieved when using platforms such as a gold nanoparticle (AuNP) or electron impedance spectroscopy (EIS) based system.

Biography :

Email: shalen.kumar@vuw.ac.nz